


Of pink dresses, snow and visiting nobles.

by Kimmy



Category: Harmatia Cycle, The Harmatia Cycle - Fandom, The Sons of Thestian - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bromance, Crack, Fluff, Gen, Humor, I'm Bad At Tagging, Lots of bromance, Ridiculous, bits of it, i think so, lots of humor, maybe also a tad bit crack, mostly that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-05-20
Packaged: 2018-03-31 10:52:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3975373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimmy/pseuds/Kimmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rufus, which is to be expected of such a (literally) hot man, hates winter. Unfortunately, whether he likes it or not, winter still comes to Harmatia. And not just winter.<br/>Jionathan and Zachary find it all quite hillarious, really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of pink dresses, snow and visiting nobles.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MEVaughan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MEVaughan/gifts).



> Oh, the endless inspiration the visiting nobles are.  
> Also, don't really look at the tags, I suck at this.  
> If there are any mistakes or misspellings, I blame it entirely on Internet Explorer. How am I supposed to work well, if I am forced to work with such a browser? Too bad my Chrome is going through rebel teenage years...
> 
> Also, dear Madeleine, your book is an absolute masterpiece, and please, forgive me for not giving it justice. I'm sure I made like a billion of mistakes in the story and background and the world and characters but yeah... i have no excuse. So sorry.

It was  _snowing._ The weather was slowly getting worse and worse these and it seemed winter was slowly but undeniably approaching. Winter was rarely harsh in Harmatia, and Rufus was thankful for that, but it seemed this year it mercilessly decided to come. The temperature dropped to some inhumane level and. it. was.  _snowing._

Rufus hated it when it snowed.

Jionathan loved it.

It only made Rufus hate it even more, really. Especially considering the brat took utmost delight in tossing horrible amounts of icy cold snow at him.

Icy cold.

Snow.

_SPLAT!_

Rufus jumped and yelped, shivering and trying to get the remnants of the snowball out of his cloak. He didn't even have to see the smug grin on the brat's face to know who the culprit was.

 

\- Careful, or I might set your pants on fire.

He turned around slowly to face the exact picture he expected. Well, almost exact. To be honest, he he imagined Jionathan to wear pretentiously rich, white and blue outfit fitting for greeting the visiting nobles who turned yesterday. The plain brown cloak that the Prince was wearing instead looked a bit out of place, suspiciously non-regal.

\- You'd better set fire to yourself if you're so cold.

\- Yeah, I'm sure you'd just love that. - Rufus murmered under his breath.

Jionathan laughed.

They both remebered it all too well. When Rufus one day decided that _wouldn't it just be amazing to create imfammable fabric?!_ As amazing as the idea was indeed, the fabric turned out to be not-so-imfammable. The Prince found the embarrassment of the very naked Rufus quite hillarious.

\- Sure I would. But it's your lucky day. Come on, we're going investigating.

\- Investigating?

Not really sure what was going on or whether it was wise to join in, Rufus followed Jionathan.

\- It's Princess Lorelei.

 _What?_ Princess Lorelei was one of the said visiting nobles who arrived in the late evening the day before. She was supposed to be taken care of by... Actually, why was Jionathan running around the town rather than be taking care of her? And in the plain brown cloak, like he was... hiding. Rufus stopped abruptly.

\- Jionat. What _have_ you done?

Rather than stop, the Prince grabbed Rufus' hand and hauled him into a dark alleyway that led its way to the castle though a narrow path entering the citadel FROM THE BACK and was completely empty. At least no one around to overhear, Rufus supposed, which must have been Jionathan's intention.

\- I'm convinced she's plotting against me with Reine. They arrived in the late evening and had an official meeting with the queen and in the morning it turns out I am the one supposed to take care of the Princess, and she was definitely not acting normal, draping herself all over me, wanting me to show her my chambers, tell her something about myself and asking all kinds of strange questions. I only just managed to escape when she was in the loo. So now, while someone else is giving them official tour around the castle, we will go to her chambers and investigate.

Without waiting for Rufus' response, Jionathan stormed forward, continuing on the way the castle. For a while, the Magi considered enlightening the Prince that the reasons for the Princess' behaviour may be something entirely opposite to bringing Jonathan's downfall, that she may rather planning him to fall, but in love with her, but he decided he needed some cheer up in this ugly weather and investigating with Jionat may turn out to be fun. And if, by a chance the Princess indeed plotted something, Rufus would help stop the tyrannical Harmatian Queen and her minions with pleasure, so it was pretty much a win-win situation. And, there was a huge chance there would be a huge, generous fireplace in the Princess' chambers.

* * *

 

While Jionathan was storming through the Princess' furniture, Rufus took his time to admire the chambers and eventually decided to sit in front of the brilliant, enormous fireplace and drank in the sheer perfection of the moment. He took of his cloak and placed it next to the fire, so it would dry before he had to face the monsterous weather outside again.

Somewhere behind him, Jionathan let out a strangled gasp.

Alarmed, but not enough to give up his comfortable position, Rufus stayed lying in front of the fire, but turned his head slightly towards the sound and lifted one eyelid. The Prince ha been standing in front of the desk, having a pile of papers in one hand and a thick leather book in the other. His eyes, picturing the absolute horror has been going from one to the other, evidently reading bits and pieces from both, apparently not decided where to look and trying to comprehend everything at once.

\- Found some compromising documents?

Worse barked a hourless laugh still couloured with pure dread.

\- Worse. I found her _journal._

\- Mhm. - Rufus smiled. - Anything interesting there?

\- You don't really want to know. Beleive me. She's even more of a pervert than you. _Fuck._ Let's just... Let's get out of here. I want to be as far as possible when she comes back.

\- Yeah... - Rufus sighed. - How about you check if we can get out the standard way, though the front door, so we save ourselves the oh-so-nice hour-long stroll around the whole bloody castle?

Apparently, even being the winter-loving brat, Jionathan didn't seem to be overjoyed by the idea of the such a long journey through the blizzard either. Unfortunetely, the gods must have not been happy with their little investigation, because the front door turned out to be „blocked” by the whole visiting nobles family, alog with the Princess, decided to make their stay and have hot mead and the dinner on the arcades right in front of the chambers Jionat and Rufus were stuck in. In the rumpaging blizzard going back around the castle didn't only seem unpleasant, but downright impossible at the moment.

\- Looks we will have to make ourselves comfortable.

\- Finally you're talking sense.

Rufus relaxed even more and moved closer to the fire, drinking in the warmth of it that carressed his skin now. Jionathan chosen to make himself comforable on the Princess bed, since she refused to have a servant given to clean the chambers, and left it unmade. There was no chance in the mess of the blankets and pillows she would notice somebody else lay there.

They lay like that, Jionat staring at the ceiling, Rufus with his eyes closed, dozing off.

\- Did I drag you away from work?

It took Rufus a whle to realise Jionathan was talking to him.

\- Um, nah, actually I had a day off, so to speak.

\- But, if you didn't have to do any work around the town, why were you even out? Why not stay home, next t the fire going?

Rufus shrugged.

\- Were looking for you.

That much was true.

\- For me? What for?

\- No idea.

That was, actually, also true. Rufus gave himself a while to process this information. Why was he looking for Jionat? He hated the brat, why would he be seeking his attention? And yet, he followed the Prince without thinking, and actually seemed to enjoy this quite day of investigating and relaxing in the Princess Lorelei's chambers.

Jionathan's thoughs wandered in the similar direction, and he sat up on the Princess' bed to take a look at... whever Rufus was to him, because suddenly the arch-nemesis didn't seem fitting. One doesn't drag their arch-nemesis on a quest or investigation, do they?

But then Jionathan sat up and truly did look and Rufus, and taking in his appearance along with the bliss showing on his face, he couldn't help but burst laughing. He hoped nobody would hear him outside.

Rufus shot up like he was struck with a lightining, the sudden sound dragging him from a peaceful nap. He sat up and... looking down at himself, noticed he was starkers.

The remnants of his pantleg were glowing along with the embers of the dying fire. As the chill of the winter seemed to overcome him now that he was naked and the fire died, he thought that he pretty much didn't like this feeling of deja vu. With a generous amount of magic he brought the fire back and waiing for Jionat to stop laughing turned around to look for something to wear.

* * *

They've been moving through the snow on the narrow path around the castle, because the Prince didn't want to confront the lovestruck Princess and decided he needed to hide (and for some unfathomable reason decided to hide at Rufus'. Like they were friends. Which they weren't. Were they?), while Rufus pretty much didn't wat to confront anybody in his current state, because...

Unfortunately, Princess Lorelei only had clothes in colour pink. Dresses, lots of dresses, shoes, even boots and cloaks for winter, were all pink.

And now Rufus had to parade the narrow path around the castle in pink dress and cloak, because it was enough they would have to go through the part of the lower town in this outfit, he really didn't need to parade around the courtyard like that.

Getting through the snow in the dress turned out to be very slow, which hightened the risk of not managing before the curfew, which was dangerously early now in the winter, and somewhere shortly before entering the lower town they had an involuntaary stop to fight their way through when Rufus almost got bedded for being _such a lovely lady._ Things got really bad when the curfew sounded around when they were not halfway to the Rufus' house. They started to run, but with Rufus tripping every three steps, they evetually had to slow down to a march and pray not to be spotted. Which they realised as they huge dark shadow blocked their way, might have been a silly wish considering they were a pink stain on the pure white snow.

But as much dread as the Night Patrol brought in Rufus, the transformation only added to his horror.

He should have guessed his luck.

_Who else could it be but Zachary?_

\- Pretty lady, isn't he?

_Jionat, you traitor._

As much as the Prince and Zachary spit fire at each other on the daily basis, the brilliant opportunity to mock Rufus seemed to unite them. The younger Magi pouted and ignoring the fact there were more Night Patrol around just stormed the rest of the way to his house. When he eventually managed to get his parents to open the door, he didn't say a word of explanation and was glad his father decided to ignore all the pink on his son and just go back upstairs. Still angry (and not even a bit hurt) he took all the pink off and though a light night shirt and pants on while thinking of what terrible things he could do to the awful Princess' clothes.

After a while of cathatric reflections on torture he decided on a poetic simplicity and just tossed everything into the fire. The bloody clothes could after all turn useful and save the wood.

The knock on the door interupted him, and he thought of the Harmatia's heir trapped outside, past the curfew, probably after a long fight with Zachary and somehow, miraculously convincing him not to drag him back to the castle. He considered what to do.

Why should he open the door on such a dangerous hour to the man he hated, who mocked him in the hour of his vunerability?

_You don't open the door to your arch-nemesis._

Rufus sighed and made his way down to unlock it.

_Oh well, but you maybe you open the door to your friend._


End file.
